Mesa special-education teacher Faith Leonard talked it over with her husband the weekend after 20 children and six educators were shot dead by an intruder at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The answer was an unequivocal yes. Instead of driving to Iowa to visit family over her winter break, Leonard would drive across the country to bring toys, treats, donations and cheer to mourners in Newtown, Conn.

“As I teacher, I was just sick about what had happened,” said Leonard, 30, who has taught autistic sixth-graders at Barbara Bush Elementary School in Mesa for nine years.

“For teachers, schoolchildren are our love. They are the ones we protect. I have heard the expression ‘Don’t get sad, get busy.’ I felt moved to help.”

The following Monday, Leonard sent an e-mail about her plans to co-workers at Barbara Bush, as well as to Mesa’s Zaharis Elementary and Kyrene de las Lomas Elementary in the Ahwatukee Foothills area of Phoenix, where her husband, Dave, is a teacher.

Educator friends in Maricopa and Litchfield Park, parents of kids in Leonard’s class and a couple of Boy and Girl Scout troops also caught wind of the project and got involved.

By the time Leonard packed her car on Dec. 20, she had amassed about $3,000 in donations for victims’ families and various social-service projects in Newtown, 500 homemade cookies, 50 stuffed animals, 20 boxes of candy canes, three boxes of crafts supplies, blankets and 10 handmade quilts.

“I was astounded,” she said.

Were any of Leonard’s friends surprised by her decision to forgo Christmas with her family and spend it with strangers?

“Not at all,” said Gregg Baumgarten, a retired Mesa Public Schools principal who now is national chairman of a non-profit called Wheelchair and Ambulatory Sports USA. He knows Leonard because she also is a Special Olympics coach.

“Faith is an incredible young women. She is a doer — a can-do person. She also is an example of a master teacher who is dedicated to her kids, and I think she felt a real kinship with the staff and families of Sandy Hook.”

Leonard said, “My family did not bat an eye. They said, ‘We love you, and we are proud of you.’”

She drove about two-thirds of the 2,500-mile, 38-hour trip with her husband and their German shepherd. They parted ways in Indianapolis, where he met a relative who took him to Iowa.

She drove for another 12 hours to Newtown. “I got lost a little bit,” she said. “Part of the drive was in blinding snow.”

Leonard arrived at the small Connecticut town at noon on Dec. 23 and didn’t waste a minute. There were additional presents to buy, wrapping to do, money to donate — and she also would volunteer time at a church food panty.

“I knew there would be a need for volunteers, and I wanted the people who lived in Newtown to have extra time with their families this year,” she said.

Leonard was among hundreds of other people that the news media have started calling Newtown “pilgrims,” who arrived with food, toys and donations — and the goal of sharing the sorrow of mourners in the community.

Leonard said she received a warm welcome from everyone she came into contact with.

“The love shown to me was very humbling,” she said. “Newtown gave me the best Christmas present ever: the opportunity to share love from one community to another.”

On Christmas Day, Leonard got up at 5 a.m., bought doughnuts and took them to the police and fire stations and a local funeral home.

By 7 a.m., she had set up a table in front of the town hall with a small Christmas tree, toys and cookies and signs saying “Merry Christmas. We Love You!” and “Barbara Bush Elementary cares about you.”

“Some people walked up and wanted to cry,” she said. “Some wanted a hug. Some wanted to give me money, but I sent those people to the bank. I didn’t need any more donations at that point.”

Leonard said she was the only pilgrim to show up in the middle of town on Christmas.

“It was just me out there that day,” she said. “Call me crazy, but I smiled and waved to everyone who passed by in their cars.”

Before heading back to Mesa at week’s end, she also met with Newtown officials and made a donation for the creation of a butterfly garden in memory of those killed. She also donated funds to Sandy Hook Elementary to be used as needed.

Then, before getting back in her car for the drive back, Leonard left 26 candy canes in the snow and made 26 snow angles in the park in the center of town.

“If one kid smiles because of all of this, it was worth all the hours in the car,” she said.

Posting a comment to our website allows you to join in on the conversation. Share your story and unique perspective with members of the azcentral.com community.

Comments posted via facebook:

► Join the Discussion

azcentral.com has switched to the Facebook comment system on its blogs. Existing blog comments will display, but new comments will only be accepted via the Facebook comment system. To begin commenting, you must be logged into an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. While we welcome you to join conversations, readers are responsible for their comments and abuse of this privilege will not be tolerated. We reserve the right, without warning or notification, to remove comments and block users judged to violate our Terms of Service and Rules of Engagement. Facebook comments FAQ

Join thousands of azcentral.com fans on Facebook and get the day's most popular and talked-about Valley news, sports, entertainment and more - right in your newsfeed. You'll see what others are saying about the hot topics of the day.